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Session 8b (Stars of Io)
We Fail Less Status *DM: Bryce *Players: **Raymond - Naiveral ***XP: +4500 **Ryan - Wuelasselin ***XP: +4500 **Drew - Nora Lenderby ***XP: +4500 **Paul - Gnarlimb ***XP: +4500 *Date: February 24, 2012 *Location: Ryan's Media Room Summary Saruun Kell Wuelasselin attempts to resurrect Illustral, but his soul is unresponsive. He then resurrects Gnarlimb. While he recovers, he carves a new totem that was revealed to him while he was in the spirit world among the ancestors. After his death, Gnarlimb seems more determined to find the Stars and more willing to resort to violence if need be. Having witnessed the party's battle with Goldweaver's agents, Naerumar decided to share some knowledge with the party: an ancient concord of dragons once agreed to keep the Stars out of unworthy hands. Most of the dragon types have forgotten this ancient pact, and Naerumar has been trying to remind them. He advises the party to follow Goldweaver's minions to the next StarRK1, and provides some supplies as well as a mysterious metal disc runed with symbols for the twelve metallic dragons. Calimport The party teleports to Calimport, finding it in much the same condition as they last left it. They begin asking around town for people who might have seen the purple shardmind but are unsuccessful. They track down the merchant the sold the sold the replica shield to, to see if maybe the shardmind had come for it. Nora seduced the merchant and he said that he sold it to a caravan. He offered to show her on a map where they went and lead her to his home. Once inside he revealed his member to her, dropping the pretense of the map. Finding him no longer useful, Nora mutilated his penis, giving in to her sadistic natureRK2. The group then traveled to the Temple of Ioun, where Nora disguised herself as the identical twin sister of the purple shardmind. She learned that her pretend twin has been banned from the temple after trying to access it's archives, which hold information including instructions for interplanar travel. Nora still disguised was noticed outside the temple by the Sultan, who told them to leave immediately and that they still did not have permission to mine here. Nora asked where the mine was so that the party could tear down the entrance, and the Sultan pointed the direction. Gnarlimb found the sandstone entrance among the dunes, and the party made their way down the shaft, until they arrived at what was possibly the Temple Catacombs, where there was a mysterious portal. Believing the shardmind and her posse had escaped this way, they followed after. The Interplanar Corridor The Party then found themselves in an old interplanar corridor; a relic from time before reliable teleportation techniquesRK3. Fire Room A small room full of fire. Gnarlimb recovered a chest of loot on one of the many run throughs the party made. Desert Isle A desert ilse. The party found some blue drinks in pots on the beach Basilisk Room A group of people had seemingly been turned to stone while fighting. The party noticed a broken up looking wall and decided to press on for fear of disturbing a basalisk. Pirate Ship - rusty remains Nothing of interest beside a straining door. Nora blasted it open and a bunch on junk poured out. Castle Room Nothing of interest Backtrack to Treasure Room A room full of illusionary treasure. Nora tried to steal it, but couldn't interact with it at all. She swam through the stuff until finding a real crown and a door. The door led to a martial sanctuary. There was a fountain and a choice of loot. Kobolds in Sealed off Place - beady little eyes After tearing down part of a wall in the castle room, the party recognized some kobolds standing around in the dark. The Party sealed up the wall and left. Long Hall A hall with a lot of doors Room with River A room with a river Bettle Like Room Sand Pit rolly technique, boot loot Giant's Vagina A slimy tunnel of no great importance. Portcullis Room Wuel used a mage hand to retrieve the "dagger key" Tundra The Flume battle with the orcs, arson Wheel Room a strange wheel that seemed to change the destination of portals Gravity Well RK4 Earth Elemental Room they didn't want to talk Acid Rain Hall Fire Elemental Room didn't want to talk either Acid Rain Hall Crystal Room the party was able to rest here, and the fountain seemed to magically restore them Forest circlet loot Statue Room dagger key, crown key, cloak key, center key missing Cart Chasm RK5 Nemesis Room As soon as the party entered, the flickering shadows in this room resolved into a variety of shapes and took on substance: three large tentacles, a flesh golem, an owlbear, and a blue arcanian. A mind flayer was briefly seen but vanished again. A voice informed the party that they would have to defeat their nemeses in order to pass. Each of these creatures reflected some past experience or fear held by a party member, and could only harm or be harmed by the party member for whom it was intendedPP1, RB1, RK6. Dragon Room A black dragon lay decapitated, along with a dead monk who fought with the shardmind. Commentary * RK1 **The extra bit of direction here was nice, but given the lack of direction we've had up to this point it did stand out a bit and felt a little too much like DM sympathy. **'DM Note': This has actually been in the works since the second session, you guys just never did anything to earn his trust until now. I've been waiting to get to explore this Naerumar character more for a while. * RK2 **A Rapist got mutilated. What's not to like. Would have been nice to see some further reaching effects of the False Shield though. **'DM note': you guys got me on this one. I never thought you would follow up on this. In hind sight, I wish I had done something with it. I came up with several cool scenarios the next day. * RK3 **I did like this dungeon. It is on par with the Khayu's Tomb and the Veiled Castle in terms of encounter type variety and overall design. I'm still not sure of the exact layout if anyone has any clearer idea feel free to edit/remake the map image I posted (though after the reactions I got during this session after recreating the map from memory I'm sure only Bryce knows how close I am...) * RK4 **I liked this room. I got to walk on walls and stuff :D Basically anytime I get to something other than Iron Fist someone is a good time for me :S * RK5 **I liked this room as well. * PP1 **The puzzles throughout here were fun. Nice dash of combat too. Definitely the most variety we've seen in a night, which I appreciated. I know I can't expect that much or consistently want that much variety in a session, but it was a lot of fun and I hope you decide to mix stuff up like this again sometime. The "worst fear" fight was a cool concept and went smoother than I expected. I really did want to make my reflection choke on an apple though. **There was a small bit of hopelessness to this section because of the seeming scarcity of places to rest and no real idea of progress. Really though, there were a few places to rest up, but without knowing or being able to expect those places at all you start to feel a bit frazzled. I didn't want a map to the place, and am fine with other dungeons without a map, but the infinite nature of a dungeon full of portals made it a bit overwhelming at times. If we'd known about the statue sooner, and had been able to count our progress as a the number of keys we'd found so far, I think that would have helped, and any kind of collection mechanic like that would help in future similar situations. There's definitely a balance to be struck here between an impending sense of danger versus frustration as encounter powers and surges run low, and for the most part I think it worked out well. * RB1 **I really enjoyed the whole "crazy multidimensional maze" thing, and I also thought the nemesis fight was very clever and creative. * RK6 **This was a fun fight. I do wish that my Nemesis had been more interesting, but there wasn't much you could do about that. Naiveral just isn't that interesting of a character. All of the characters that I rolled for the one-offs are actually more interesting than Naiveral. This is the difference between rolling a character and creating a backstory in tandem and rolling a character and tacking on a backstory after the fact. :-/ Loot * Underdark ** Dragon Crest * Fire Room Chest ** ????? * Illusionary Treasure ** Crown Key * Treasure 1 ** Gauntlets of Ogre Power (lvl 9) * Sand Pit ** Boots * Portcullis ** Dagger Key * Treasure 2 ** Psyweave Cloak (lvl 13, +3) ** Bracers * Forest ** Crown of Leaves (lvl 7) * Statue Room ** Shadow Key